Town Square Jewelers is taking its renovation plans to Fayetteville City Council May 3 on appeal after the proposal was denied last month by Planning and Zoning commissioners.

Owners Alex and Paula Rodriguez said renovations to the building’s exterior are part of a $200,000 project that would give a new look to the building on Stonewall Avenue. Project approval, they said, would allow them to upgrade their business and keep it in downtown Fayetteville.

“The renovations are proposed because of the need to replace deteriorating and inferior materials on the existing structure,” Planning and Zoning Director Eldridge Gunn said April 23. “The goal of the applicant’s revised elevations is to preserve the design features of the existing building while keeping costs to a minimum, but also to incorporate some of the Second Empire style elements found in the courthouse building located across the street to give the building added character.”

The proposal was denied April 12 by the Planning and Zoning Commission after discussions resulted in a 3-2 vote. Owner Alex Rodriguez asked for the vote after a lengthy discussion on the project.

“We have complied with everything,” Rodriguez said to commissioners. “We met with the Art and Architectural Advisory Committee, we agreed on the changes. But at every meeting there are more changes. I just want it to go to a vote.”

City planning staff is recommending approval for the project.

“It would be too expensive and the building is too old to undergo every modification that would be needed to completely match all of the design elements found in the Second Empire style and the building of influence, the courthouse,” Gunn said. “The changes proposed incorporate enough of the style that the Art and Architectural Committee advised approval. And finally, the renovation bolsters the overall goal of the city to support aesthetic improvements and economic viability of businesses on the town square.”

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